This is a transcript, edited only for reasons of length and clarity, of that interview.

Heartthrob: Alessandro Di BattistaCredit:
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Mr. Di Battista, what did you take away from your 6000 kilometre tour around Italy?

"We got to know the real country, which is not the one described in Renzi’s Power-point presentations. It is a country asking for everything but a Senate nominated by the political parties. The phrase I heard the most in Italy is “here they’ve closed a hospital,” and I can tell you hospitals are not closing because of a lack of sick people."

Would a “No” win be a boost for the Five Star Movement?

“We are not voting on the movement. And there is nothing about this that relates to either Trump or Brexit. Nothing. We never proposed this as a political referendum, it was Renzi who did that.”

If he loses, should Renzi resign?

“Given that Renzi has never kept his promises, he won’t do it. We are going to try to make sure this is the first promises he keeps.”

How much of a margin of victory would you need to force his resignation?

“The “No” victory is not a given. A “No” victory would be a miracle. And in any case we are not reasoning that way. We are defending the constitutional principle of the sovereignty of the people.”

And what if the “No” win creates a banking crisis and a run on Italian sovereign debt?

“I have some news for you: the banking crisis in Italy has been going on for the last 5 years. Banks have been failing. Banks have been rescued. Just look at Monte dei Paschi di Siena.”

It is easy to diagnose the problem, but much harder to propose solutions. How is Five Star going to fix these problems?

“It is evident that being in the opposition is easier than being in government. But we want the chance because those who have been in power for the last 30 years have impoverished us. The first thing we will do if elected is pass a real anti-corruption law.

“Second, we will give extraordinary support to small and medium sized businesses and third will create a citizen’s wage.

“For the Five Star Movement, having a living wage is a right. . . . we have written a law and found 17 billion euros, funded by cuts in the public administration and military, for example, plus a new tax on gambling. It is not giving away money for free.

“It is raising the minimum pension to €780 a month, which is the official poverty level, according to Istat [The Italian statistic agency].

“Those who don’t have work would be required to get job training, do public service for their cities and be on this course. They get €780 a month and the state offers them three job offers. If the citizen refuses all three, they lose the wage.”

So what about the Euro? If Italy’s banks require a European bailout, that will essentially put Italy under the tutelage of Brussels. But the alternative, as the Greeks found out, is a catastrophe. Is the idea of leaving the euro just for show?

“Excuse me, but Pope Francis recently said, you can’t save banks instead of people. For what reason do the banks have to fail in 2016?

“Because somebody had their snouts in the trough at the banks. Corruption. [The struggling Italian bank] Monte dei Paschi di Siena was devoured by the [Matteo Renzi's] Democratic Party. The bank of Italy is controlled by private institutions that it should control. We propose a separation between investment banks and credit unions.”

“The euro destroyed us. The euro is not a monetary unit, but it is a system of government. Today, everything they say is going to happen if we were to leave the euro is already happening. On this point, the Five Star Movement wants the Italian people to be able to express their will.

“I recently had a meeting with the German ambassador in Rome. She thought she was going to meet a Barbarian. On the other hand she found a polite, gracious person with whom she could talk about politics and economics.

“And at the end she said, I thought you all were different . . . and I said, well instead of worrying about the growth of the Five Star Movement, then, you should be worrying about why tens of millions of Europeans no longer believe in this European Union.

“If Europe is crumbling, it is not Five Star movement’s fault. To the contrary, in Italy we have channeled a correct and healthy indignation of the citizens. In other European countries comes out in xenophobic parties. Not in Italy. Just look out into our squares.

“They are full of hope, democracy and participation. There are never any police. Never any incidents. All of Europe should thank Italy that there is a force that absolutely wants to change things in a democratic matter. If they are afraid of populism, they should be afraid of Renzi. He is the anti-political one.

“He is throwing electoral giveaways right and left to convince citizens to vote yes: this is populism, not holding town hall meetings in the city squares over the last three years to explain our ideas.”

And what about reports that Five Star Movement has links to Russian propagandists and financing?

“We will file legal complaints against anybody who says that we are taking money from Russia. When I told my mother that some Italian newspapers were saying that Putin that had given me money, my mother said, oh I didn’t know you were that important!

“I tell all the Italian journalists, yes, I confirm it, Putin gave me €15 to put petrol in my scooter as I drove across Italy this summer. (laughter)”

You’ve said you won’t form coalitions, but can you win without doing so?

“They said the same thing before the elections in Rome and Turin. They said if you don’t form a coalition you’ll never win. And in Rome we won 67 per cent.

“Since I have been in the movement I have heard it is impossible to cut salaries, impossible to not take a euro of public financing, impossible to win Rome and Turin without forming a coalition, and now they say you cannot get into government without forming a coalition.

“They are same people who said it was impossible that Trump could become president of the United States. I would advise you not to trust those people anymore. (laughter)”

Should Brussels be afraid of a five star government? Should Europe be afraid?

“Were you afraid to do this interview?”

No, but I might be afraid if the Italian economy falls off a cliff

“We are worried about that too and that’s why we want to send home the government leaders who caused us to lose 25 per cent of our industrial productivity in the last eight years. Is it our fault or the fault of the people who have been governing for the last 30 years?

“We should be afraid that the Junckers and the Barrosos are going to continue to do damage. The movement doesn’t want to exit from the EU, we want to defend the original idea of the EU.

“But what is democratic about Mario Draghi, Barroso, Romano Prodi and all those Italian politicians who worked in the economic and finance ministries, who all have in common the fact that before or after they were consultants for banks like Rothschild, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, or Lazard?

“Is it democratic that the banks have taken control of the institutions?

“This is called “bankocracy,” not democracy. When the retirement age of Italians or the price of Feta in Greece is decided in Brussels, Frankfurt or Berlin, this is no longer democracy.”

So you want to break up the monetary union?

“I would vote for exit of Italy from the euro, but I would like that the Italian people decide.”

But if Italy leaves the euro, it is the third largest economy in Euro, then the euro is finished, with potentially enormous consequences, no?

“I see the loss of buying power with our salaries, incredible youth unemployment: young portuguese today go to Angola to look for work, while once upon a time it was the Angolans who came to Portugal for work.

“Young Italians are going to India, to China to Latin America to look for work. The industrial competitiveness of the country has declined by 25 per cent and the health system on the verge of collapsing.

“Do you want to tell me there are worse consequences than what we have today?”

But perhaps burning down the house is not the best way to keep warm?

“I reject this. Those who are burning down the European Union are those who were managed the European Union up until today, don’t point the blame at us. Brussels is responsible.

“We are convinced that, if we are able to take back sovereignty we can raise Italy from the rubble, but we will be governing a country in rubble.

“You don’t realise it because now we are in the center of Genoa but I have traveled across this country and there are urban peripheries that are like the peripheries of the big cities in Latin America.

“There are five organised crime groups and young people willing to kill for very little and an increase in drug consumption and firearms that is incredible.

“And while this world of financial capitalism is producing injustice, and the injustices are provoking violence, here there is a political force made up of young people who are talking about public water, public transport, public instruction and public health and European citizens are supposed to be afraid of us?”